All this tells us, once again, is that many "writers" aren't worth the paper they print on.
Ziller has the occasional good article but is largely an embarrassment. That he has covered the Kings and still doesn't get it(unlike national writers who at least have the excuse of covering all 30 teams) adds to the embarrassment.
It's simple, with a healthy Cuz and the correct scheme, we can compete with any team on any given night. Without Cuz, our team looks lifeless and a team which could challenge for the least number of wins in NBA history. We just can't beat anyone without him for the most part. Can't even stay in the game. The list of players with that impact is extremely short. So unless you're proposing trading Cuz for a top 5 player(which I still wouldn't do), GTFO. I'd ask Ziller, which NBA team has ever, and really, ever, mismanaged a future HOF talent to this extent. There's your problem.
And this has happened year after year, where it doesn't seem to be quite as bad for other teams. Coaching problem? Roster problem? Or are players these days simply not built to play with a dominant big like Cuz?
All I know is ... No HOF player has been on as consistently bad teams as Cousins. Still early in his career, but for all the talk of Cuz being some once in a life time HOF player he sure hasn't done much on a team level. Yeah the team is bad when he doesn't play, but it's also bad when he does play, unless I missed some playoff series we were in with Cousins or something like that. There's plenty of blame to go around, but somehow it's never ever Cousins' fault. Emotional outbursts affecting team morale? Because of management or coach! Get's T'd up? Because coach didn't stand up for him, or because refs are BS! Doesn't get back on D? Well what would you expect when the poor guy has to carry the team! Camping out at 3 point line? Coach's fault for not putting him in the post! The list of excuses, some more valid than others, goes on and on and on. And of course, poor Cousins just happens to be the one and only most mismanaged HOF talent in the history of the NBA, and none of it is his fault! What poor luck!
I'm not interested in weak speculation, or going the other way and saying we should trade Cousins for a tomato. But here are the facts:
- Cousins puts up very good stats. He's clearly a very very good big man.
- Kings have not won, with or without Cousins.
- Poor coaching was blamed, we changed coaches multiple times.
- Cheap/ destructive owners were blamed, we changed owners.
- Bad GM was blamed. We changed GM multiple times.
- Weak roster was blamed, we've turned the entire roster upside down other than bringing back Omri (who few have qualms about).
Despite all this, we still aren't a good team where other teams have turned it around much quicker. There are only two things that have remained constant. Cousins, and the Kings franchise's apparent knack for the worst luck ever.
So looking at it objectively, I don't think trading Cousins should be completely out of the question. If in 6 years nobody has been able to build a team around him, their fault or his, then I see no reason as to why anybody in the Kings organization, no matter which GM or coach you bring in, will be able to in the future.
This is all just postulating though. At this point patience is still key as it's not too late to turn things around, but that has to happen soon. If we finally start winning then everything I said prior to this becomes moot because we would have finally effectively built around Cousnis. But if more losing continues, you can be certain that Cousins is going to get frustrated and have another outburst and demand to be traded or to fire Karl or something of that sort and yet another season will be lost. Then what? Get Thibs, the next hyped up coach and hope he can earn Cousins' respect and whatnot? Call me a Kings fan, but I'd just expect that to fail again.
